Rams LG Rodger Saffold finding success as owner of esports team

No one will tell you that professional athletes aren’t fortunate to be making the money they bring in. Some players earn more in one year than the average person will see in a lifetime.

However, that doesn’t mean athletes can’t have side gigs to not only earn more money, but also explore other passions they have. Some produce music, while others, such as Aqib Talib, open their own gyms. Rodger Saffold is taking a different route in order to capitalize on his interest in video games.

Saffold is the owner of Rise Nation, which is an esports team that he started in 2014. Focusing on “Call of Duty,” Saffold’s team has taken home boatloads of cash by performing at a high level. Just this season, Rise Nation won a tournament in Anaheim, earning $80,000.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

That’s music to Saffold’s ears, who calls himself a “poor man’s Stan Kroenke.”

“I’m making money at it,” Saffold told ESPN. “But at the same time, I started off with ‘Call of Duty’ and now I’ve ventured into different games and different sports, and we kind of developed a nice community of people surrounded by Rise that just enjoy the organization that we created.”

Of course, Saffold has limited time available to manage his team of gamers. That’s why he partnered with one of his longtime friends and another former gamer to help run the day-to-day operations while he’s out road grading in the NFL.

Saffold said other Rams players have expressed interest in his company and would like to be involved, but for now, he’s not ready to expand the operation. With the way things are going at the moment, it’s hard to blame him for maintaining the status quo.

“At first we were thinking this was more of a hobby,” Saffold said. “But now it has kind of grown, and having more than one team and having players from all over the world has really been shocking thus far. We’re only five years into this.”

The world of esports has expanded drastically in recent years, so it’s easy to see why Saffold got into the industry relatively early. With a passion for video games, the fit was too obvious not to explore.

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